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OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture)

OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture)

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OMA to design new home for Garage in Moscow

Usoa Pagoaga
May 2, '12 3:27 PM EST

Today, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture unveiled plans for a new building in Gorky Park, designed by OMA. Garage Gorky Park - due to be completed in 2013 - will be a renovation of the famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated concrete structure that has been derelict for more than two decades. Full project info here.

OMA's design for the 5,400 square meter building includes exhibition galleries on two levels, a creative center for children, shop, café, auditorium and offices. The design preserves original Soviet-era elements - including a large mosaic, and decorative tiles and brick - while incorporating a range of innovative architectural and curatorial devices. OMA is collaborating on the project with the young Russian practice Form Bureau.

Rem Koolhaas commented: "We are very happy to work on turning the almost-ruin of Vermena Goda into the new house for Garage. We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them."

Dasha Zhukova said: "Our move to Gorky Park marks an exciting new phase in Garage's development. I am delighted that we have one of the world's leading architects, Rem Koolhaas' OMA, working on the project and I am sure their plans will attract a new generation of visitors to Garage."

Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, founded by Dasha Zhukova in 2008, is a major non-profit arts project based in Moscow, dedicated to exploring and developing contemporary culture. At the beginning of this year, Garage moved from its original home in the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage to Gorky Park in Moscow. Garage aims to bring important international modern and contemporary art to Moscow, to raise the profile of Russian contemporary culture internationally and encourage a new generation of Russian artists. It also organizes and supports a wide range of cultural projects internationally.

The Stalin-era Gorky Park was planned in the 1920s by renowned soviet Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov, who also designed Garage's previous home, the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage. Opened in 1928, Gorky Park extends 300 acres along the Moskva River in the heart of Moscow. The park is undergoing a major renovation and regeneration project, of which Garage Gorky Park is a major part.